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Summary Of The Shoemaker And The Tea Party By Thomas Paine

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Through the Constitution, the notion of freedom evolved drastically, leaning toward democracy. After Britain’s Intolerable Acts, it can be argued that one of the triggering factor of the American Revolution was Thomas Paine’s pamphlet entitled Common Sense. It galvanized the populace and consequently, generated support for overt independence. A hundred and twenty thousand copies circulated only four months before the Constitution was signed. On the second of July seventeen seventy-six, Congress formally declared the United States an independent nation and two days later adopted the Constitution, authorized by Thomas Jefferson, who was at the time Virginia’s delegate to the Second Continental Congress. The Declaration of Independence and the …show more content…

The first radical change for the people is that they had been used to being ruled by a king and now they were going to rule themselves, which was unprecedented. However, it is conceivable that the powers of the president are largely modelled on those of the King, and that the legal code is still largely based on English common law. The Civil liberties announced by the Bill of Rights encouraged the emergence of an active civil society that Foner describes as the public sphere. All social classes, including the lower ones, were concerned. In Young’s book the Shoemaker and the Tea Party, it is mentioned through the eyes of Hewes that, “as he became active politically he may have had a growing awareness of his worth as a shoemaker”. (Young, 53) About Hewes, Young added that “His experiences transformed him, giving him a sense of citizenship and personal worth.” (Young, 55) Socially speaking, this is a radical improvement that anyone from any social background may feel worthy and important to society. The House of representatives is directly elected by the people which proves their involvement. As Foner mentions, the broadened right to vote became an emblematic symbol of liberty and a proof of the revolution’s radicalness. He stated that “the Revolution witnessed a great expansion of the right to vote” (Foner, 18) and that “Freedom and the suffrage had become interchangeable” (Foner, 18). However, even if any social classes could take part in the political life of the country, it does not mean anyone could vote. Indeed, slaves, Indians or women were still missing some key rights of a free, equal, and democratic country. This aroused activism from women such as Judith Sargent Murray. She wrote a pamphlet entitled on the Equality of the Sexes and stated that “[She is] aware that there are many passages in the sacred oracles which seem to give the advantage to the other sex; but [she considers] all these

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